Peace River Center Lakeland Crisis Campus — Local services in Lakeland

After relying on their services for over a decade, and having overwhelmingly positive experiences, Peace River Center managed to completely destroy my trust in them in just 48 hours. Unbelievable.

"Donna" came to my home, uninvited and unannounced, after we spoke on the phone the previous day and arranged to set up services the following week. That woman has absolutely no business trying to assist any person with any type of problem. She became "afraid" when I told her that I needed to visit my MOTHER the next day - my Mother had just had surgery and was about to fly 1,000 miles away to recuperate.

I am so furious STILL about what happened next, and it's been a whole month since this occurred.

"Donna" told me she needed to talk to someone and she'd be right back. LIAR. She left without another word and sent the Deputies to Baker Act me hours later. I had made no threats, I was not in any way a danger to myself or anyone else, I was in no way out of control or otherwise giving any cause for concern. My daughter was right there and witnessed the entire exchange. She also thought that, if anything, Donna had been the one acting peculiar.

There was absolutely NO JUSTIFICATION for what happened to me. NONE.

At the crisis unit, Melinda Grass was so unbelievably rude, arrogant, and downright cruel as she did the intake interview. She wrote down the most asinine, inaccurate things during that time, as I later discovered when I reviewed the paperwork. (My personal favorite being that I am somehow "triggered" by "DARKNESS." I can assure you that quite the opposite is true. I am more triggered by my electric bill than I am by "darkness," of all things.) That shrew barely paid attention to what I was saying and rushed through the whole process so she could "get home to her family." This, while I was being actively traumatized due to being unexpectedly and unnecessarily separated from my own family.

When my family tried to reach me (since they also had no idea why I had been taken anywhere) no one would even confirm where I was. My daughter and partner had to leave their phone numbers with multiple people at various locations hoping that I would get their messages.

I did not get to hug my Mom before she left because of the absolute ineptitude of these people.

"Donna" is UNFIT for working in human health services. The level of trauma she has caused in my life is shattering. She has completely undermined my trust in Peace River Center as a service provider.

I truly hope that my therapist, whom I respect and rely on, is able to receive the support and compensation that she deserves while working for such a broken...

This place is far from professional and lack empathy for people. I brung my son here yesterday because he needed immediate treatment. This morning I received a call about him needing to be transferred to another facility due to his insurance which I understood but when I asked about my child’s well being and for information about his evaluation I got the run around. Later on a lady called me and gave me information which was helpful. A couple of hours later I received a private call from Dr. Buford. From the minute I said “Hello” he was very much agitated and proceeded to speak to me with a very aggressive attitude. He just kept saying if you dropped him off here why are you calling asking about him when you’re the one that left him here. Mind you I’m already devastated by what my child is going through so I’m confused and offended by the way he’s speaking to me. He wouldn’t let me get a word in without him cutting me off I even asked him If I could finish talking and he immediately yelled “NO BECAUSE IM BUSY.” I wanted to let him know that a young lady had already called me and explained more of the evaluation but he didn’t let me get not one word across. I literally had to hang up on him because of how disrespectful he was talking. After reviewing many reviews online it seems that this is normal for him and he does it quite often. I’m disgusted and angry to be quite frank. This man is NOT A PROFESSIONAL OR A PERSON THAT HAS EMPATHY FOR THE PARENTS OF THE CHILDREN IN HIS CARE. I will be making a report to the BBB also to the Florida department of health and the Florida board...

This has been the most horrible experience I’ve had to go through with my child. 11yr old child baker acted because wouldn’t talk to crisis therapist. I go to visit, my child is sitting in a chair completely terrified, instantly cries when they see me. The hour visit my child was balled up in my lap crying. Nobody has explained anything to my child, had no idea where where to sleep, they put ankle monitor on but never answered or told my child what it was for so my child was there thinking it was to shock them. During my visit I had brought some comfortable clothes with no strings. They gave pajama pants and underwear only. I requested 3 times for the long sleeve shirt while there and it was still never given!?!? Staff is very rude and from what I seen there is no interaction between these children and staff with the exception of one staff member who was interacting when the children engaged first. This place has caused more trauma to my child then help!!! I wouldn’t even recommend to my worst enemy!!! Extremely...